Hey- so, here's my conundrum at the moment. I've always loved the Fallout series, and especially the art in the game and game materials. Recently, I spent about six hours into breaking down my Fallout 3 manual.


My plan was to put those pieces down in that layout on some Fallout 3 images that I'd re-sized to fit two 11x17 prints  and a 8.5x14 print.

I went down to Kinko/FedEX and asked them to print the images for me (the self printer they had gave me white borders I couldn't knock off), and they called me back and asked me for copyright permission to reproduce the images. I know pretty much nil when it comes to copyright releases, but I imagine I could get a limited release for personal use if I just knew who to ask at Bethesda. Any suggestions?

I tried to put pictures of the process in this post, but I'm "not allowed to post links", which is weird.

They're on Tinypic; here are the unique characters that identify them in the index of images. I don't know what's up with the system that filters "links", so this is the best I can do.

i41 xgk4dg
i43 2mgt4xl
i40 2aaeauo
i41 28m1rtj
i42 34gsz7o

... called the corporate offices; we'll see if I get any feedback.

Well technically, under "Fair Use", you can duplicate or copy any copyrighted pieces of work as long as they fall under non-profit or personal circumstances and don't impede the commercial revenue for whatever work you're duplicating. So if you're not going to go around selling these pictures or make them available for people to steal and sell, you can duplicate them without legal consequences.

*This is my summary of the legal parameters regarding the doctrine based on documents I've seen about it in text books*

**But then again, FedEx is making a profit on this so THAT could be where you would need permission.**

Yeah. I think that FedEX, in the fine tradition of corporate paranoia, doesn't want to touch anything that is or could be copyrighted, lest they expose themselves to the dreaded 'l' word- liability.

Looks like it's a no-go with FedEx. I had an email conversation with a gentleman at the Bethesda offices, and unfortunately it doesn't look like something they can accommodate. Wish me luck- hopefully the next time this thread updates it will be with images of the finished project!

Couldn't you just post the pictures on something like DeviantArt, and post a link to it? You won't have to go through copyright that way.

Mmm... I didn't ask, but I'm pretty sure that there's a watermark or somesuch on the images I'm trying to use, otherwise I'm not sure how the folks at FedEx would have figured it out. Because of the way I cropped them so they'd bleed to the edges of the print sizes I wanted to use, there weren't any overt copyright or trademark signage. I'm going to try a local print shop and see if I don't have more luck.

The guys at the local print shop will print them! Unfortunately, they want them in .pdf, sized to print with space for bleed, and I've been rocking out MSPaint so far. Anyone have suggestions as to where I could find a freeware program I could use to get them to the appropriate size? This works, I'll be pretty psyched.

You can't post links till you've been here a week, I think.

I think it's been a week....

http://i41.tinypic.com/xgk4dg
http://i43.tinypic.com/2mgt4xl
http://i44.tinypic.com/2aaeauo
http://i41.tinypic.com/28m1rtj
http://i42.tinypic.com/34gsz7o

... and here's the finished project!
[img]http://i40.tinypic.com/vzzns9&s.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i43.tinypic.com/9le41u[/img]
[img]http://i42.tinypic.com/vfieex[/img]

I particularly like the last one. I would have planned more room for the frame around the pictures if I could do it again, but all in all, for about $50, I like it!

I'll buy it from you. I swear I will. Or make me one. Now.





Heh. They look extremely good, in my opinion. Wish I had one.